The New Zealand government is set to move ahead with the appointment of an inspector general of police after a scandal over officers’ sexual misconduct.
The Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) has been released A 135-page report On Tuesday the allegations in detail made against the former deputy Commissioner Commissioner Jevon McSkimming and the police response to them.
On a separate matter, McSkimming last week pleaded guilty of child possession sexual exploitation and material bestiality.
The IPCA report on Tuesday said that instead of investigating the allegations made against McSkimming, the police used the accusatory emails sent by MS Z, instructing him to send damaging digital communications.
The report found there was a “significant failure” in the police response to the complaints, which was described as intransigence and “a poor acceptance of the events of MR MCSKIMMING”. It recommended an overhaul of police policies, stronger processes around alleged bad cops and improved oversight.
“Compassionate at every level,” Mark Mitchell, the police minister, told Broadcaster Rnz on Wednesday.
Mitchell explained that the report highlights “significant flaws” in decision-making, judgment and actions by the police, including by former leaders.
“Their actions raise serious concerns about the integrity and culture within the then executive,” he said.
Mitchell said the appointment of an Inspector General will help ensure police are following proper procedures and restore public confidence in the police.
The allegations arose from a sexual relationship that began in 2016 between McSkimming, who was then 40, and MS Z, an unwanted police officer who was then 21, the report said.
After the relationship ended in 2018, McSkimming learned According to Seam Police of their agreement and told his supervisor MS ZZ threatened and pressured him.
From 2018, Ms Z allegedly sent hundreds of emails to McSkimming and other police staff, made various posts to social media and lodged complaints with the police hotline, detailing allegations against McSkimming, including of sexual interaction without consent and threats to use intimate video recordings, the report noted.
In January 2024, Ms Z’s emails were used to charge her with damaging digital communications with McSkimming. The charges were later dropped.
The police decided to investigate MS Z’s allegations a month after charging him, but the IPCA found the investigation process, and the future of MCSKIMMING’s career prioritized.
The report found that Andrew Coster, the Commissioner at the time, “attempted to influence the investigative process, and, the Deputy Commissioner Communistry invented his knowledge of the relationship with McSkimming.
The Guardian has contacted McSkimming’s lawyer for comment. Coster declined to comment.
The current commissioner of the police, expressed the actions and attitudes set up in the report “incalculable” and apologized to MS Z, which he said was indifferent.
“A senior police officer’s ambitions are placed above the interests of a vulnerable woman.”